Tom Waits (born Thomas Alan Waits, in Pomona, California, on December 7, 19… Read Full Bio ↴Tom Waits (born Thomas Alan Waits, in Pomona, California, on December 7, 1949) is a prolific American singer, songwriter, composer, and actor.

He started his career in the early 1970s as a singer in spit 'n' sawdust bars. Initially, he was deeply influenced by the beat generation, novelists like Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, and poets like Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski. Waits is often compared to Charles Bukowski, being similar both in content and lifestyle

Waits was unable to make a living from his music in the 70s because his classical bar music, based in pre-rock, and Americana, blues, and Vaudeville styles were not popular. Waits's voice back then was soft, warm and clear.

Waits subsequently developed a devoted cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters, despite having little radio or music video support. In fact, his songs are perhaps best known to the general public in the form of cover versions of more visible artists, such as the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart.

Although Waits’s albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries.

Lyrically, Waits's songs are known for atmospheric portrayals of seedy characters and places; he sings about the losers on the streets: alcoholics, junkies, prostitutes and social outcasts, although he also includes more conventional and touching ballads in his repertoire.

While opening for Frank Zappa, the audience catcalled and refused to listen to him; he was an unsuitable match with Zappa's avantgarde style.

Countless cigarettes, gallons of alcohol and many all night parties eventually left their trace in his face and voice.

His more recent gravelly voice can be first heard on Small Change. This distinctive voice turned out to be his trademark. It is described by the Music Hound Rock Album Guide as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car". Small Change with its sentimental ballads, its bar-jazz attitude and Film Noir-oriented stories turned out to be his biggest commercial success in the 1970s.

Waits subsequently developed a more unique style. His songs have grown more abrasive since then, and the arrangements have turned more surreal and experimental with every new record. His life brings him to new visions, as indicated by the direction taken in his "Alice" release.

While composing the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's One From The Heart Waits met Kathleen Brennan, his bride-to-be. They married in 1980 and she helped him quit drinking and smoking. Since their marriage they have been working together on his albums as co-producers and co-writers. It is hard to say which part belongs to her and which to him, but it's easy to see that they make a perfect team. Additionally, his eldest son Casey can be heard on turntables and percussion on Waits's album "Real Gone".

One of Waits's greatest successes was the album "Swordfishtrombones", released in 1983. It struck with his critics and fans alike. He achieved a new level of song writing and left former conventions (and his earlier career) behind. All songs, whether ballads, jive or jazz are played in a completely different way. It seems that Waits had taken the musical archetypes of these styles and made them his own. All tracks are in the quintessential Waits style. They have a striking rawness and listenability and they set the stage for his success and his future career.

The Bad As Me Songfacts reports that 36 years after the release of Waits' first album, Closing Time in 1973, Bad As Me became Waits's first ever top 10 album in the US when it debuted at #6 with 63,000 sales.

In the late 1980s Waits discovered an outlet for his creativity in composing musicals. His first Musical was named "The Black Rider", and is based on "Der Freischütz" by Carl Maria von Weber. It was co-produced by Robert Wilson and the lyrics come from William S. Burroughs. The story is slightly reminiscent of Kurt Weil's and Berthold Brecht's "Three Penny Opera" and the 1930s. The debut performance of the play was in 1990 at the Thalia Theater, Hamburg and has been played by various theatre groups since then.

Waits was also responsible for two other musicals, which later became albums released simultaneously in 2002. One was the musical "Blood Money," which covers the "Woyczek" theme of Georg Büchner. This one is one of the darkest works from Waits. The other musical is based on Lewis Carroll's classic children's novel, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". "Alice" is very romantic, dreamy and soft, and contains one of Waits most romantic songs. Even though they were released at the same time, the bootlegs of the "Alice" musical were long before traded between fans and were just rearranged and re-mastered for the official release.

Besides many film contributions as composer – the Internet Movie Database imdb.com lists 47 appearances of Waits as composer and 38 soundtracks containing songs by Waits - he also is an actor with a total of 25 appearances, ranging from some mini-roles as a trumpeter in "Heart of Saturday Night" and the R. M. Renfield in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" to the major role of Zack in Jim Jarmusch's "Down by Law". He recently appeared in Roberto Benigni's "The Tiger and the Snow", playing You Can Never Hold Back Spring at Benigni's wedding dream. Even more recently, Waits played Mr.Nick (the Devil) in Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus".

In addition to a number of concert videos, he also appeared in the critically-acclaimed concert feature film "Big Time" (1990).

Waits has always refused to allow the use of his songs in commercials. He has filed several lawsuits against advertisers for using his material without permission. Waits also successfully sued an advertiser for using a work that was stylistically similar to his work, after he had declined to sell them the rights to his song. He has been quoted as saying, "Apparently the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad — ideally naked and purring on the hood of a new car. I have adamantly and repeatedly refused this dubious honor."

More Than Rain
Tom Waits Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

It's more than rain that falls on our parade tonight
It's more than thunder it's more than thunder
And it's more than a bad dream now that I'm sober
Nothing but sad times, nothing but sad times
None of our pockets are lined with gold
Nobody's caught the bouquet
There are no dead presidents we can fold
Nothing is going our way

And it's more than trouble I've got myself into
It's more than woebegotten grey skies now

And it's more than a bad dream now that I'm sober
There's no more dancing, there's no more dancing
And it's more than trouble I've got myself into
Nothing but sad times, nothing but sad times
None of our pockets are lined with gold
Nobody's caught the bouquet
There are no dead presidents we can fold
Nothing is going our way
And it's more than goodbye, I have to say to you
It's more than woebegotten grey skies now
And it's more than goodbye, I have to say to you

It's more than woebegotten grey skies now
And it's more than woebegotten grey skies now

Overall Meaning

Tom Waits's song "More Than Rain" is a melancholic tune that captures the essence of sadness and despair. Waits opens his song by singing "It's more than rain that falls on our parade tonight," implying that whatever is causing the music's despair is more significant than a typical rainy night. As the song progresses, Waits repeatedly emphasizes the phrase "nothing but sad times," conveying the overall tone of hopelessness and depression.

The lyrics also talk about a lost sense of joy and how things are not going well. Waits speaks about how there are no wealthy people with money to help things go better and there are no happy occasions like a wedding to lift people's spirits. The phrase "There's no more dancing" emphasizes how joy is lost and things are not the same anymore. Towards the end of the song, Waits mentions saying goodbye to someone, which could be interpreted as a significant personal loss.

In conclusion, "More Than Rain" captures the essence of sadness and despair. Tom Waits's lyrics emphasize the idea that the world is a difficult and challenging place. He describes the loss of joy and how things are not going well. It's a powerful song that leaves an emotional impact on the audience.

Line by Line Meaning

It's more than rain that falls on our parade tonight
Our situation is worse than just a little bit of rain ruining our celebrations.

It's more than thunder it's more than thunder
The magnitude of our troubles is greater than the sound of thunder.

And it's more than a bad dream now that I'm sober
Now that I am no longer under the influence of drugs or alcohol, I realize that our situation is more than just a bad dream.

Nothing but sad times, nothing but sad times
We are going through a period of only sadness and despair, with no signs of improvement.

None of our pockets are lined with gold
We are all broke and struggling financially.

Nobody's caught the bouquet
We have not had any luck or success in our endeavors.

There are no dead presidents we can fold
We have no money, not even any bills with images of dead presidents that we can fold and use.

Nothing is going our way
We are facing a string of failures and setbacks.

And it's more than trouble I've got myself into
The problems we are facing are not simply due to my own mistakes, but are much bigger than that.

It's more than woebegotten grey skies now
The bleakness and sadness that we are experiencing is worse than just a cloudy day.

There's no more dancing, there's no more dancing
We have lost our zest for life and are no longer able to enjoy the good things in life like dancing.

And it's more than goodbye, I have to say to you
My departure from your life is not just a simple goodbye, but signifies a deeper sense of loss and sadness.

And it's more than woebegotten grey skies now
The sadness and bleakness in our lives has reached a new level and is worse than ever before.

And it's more than goodbye, I have to say to you
Our separation is not just a casual farewell between acquaintances, but signifies a deeper sense of loss and heartbreak.

And it's more than woebegotten grey skies now
The sadness and despair in our lives is now at an even greater level and is all-encompassing.

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: THOMAS ALAN WAITS

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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@vristivojevic

45w↑3

It's more than rain that falls on our parade tonight
It's more than thunder, it's more than thunder
And it's more than a bad dream now that I'm sober
Nothing but sad times, nothing but sad times.

None of our pockets are lined with gold
Nobody's caught the bouquet
There are no dead presidents we can fold
Nothing is going our way
And it's more than trouble I've got myself into
It's more than woe-begotten grey skies now.

And it's more than a bad dream now that I'm sober
There's no more dancing, there is no more dancing
And it's more than trouble I've got myself into
Nothing but sad times, nothing but sad times.

None of our pockets are lined with gold
Nobody's caught the bouquet
There are no dead presidents we can fold
Nothing is going our way.

And it's more than goodbye I have to say to you
It's more than woe-begotten grey skies now
And it's more than goodbye I have to say to you
It's more than woe-begotten grey skies now
And it's more than woe-begotten grey skies now
🎶🎶🎶